Machiavellian Stupidity

No, not Bush, but this deal is very machiavellian. Ive been rereading Code of the Lifemaker* for the first time in many years. It’s actually been pretty depressing in its accuracy and how it explains a lot. The future America is mired in “mystic” thinking, there’s a con man/stage magician who everybody thinks is real. It was funnier a decade or two ago when I didn’t see so many parallels to what’s going on today.
This thought crystallized when I read this paragraph that comes after mentioning various crackpotteries.

“A politician can net a lot of votes for a small amount of effort by saying nice things about a guru who’s got ten thousand disciples so brainwashed that they’ll do anything he tells them,” Massey said, “So the guys who run the cults get away with murder, and nobody bothers them very much. The business they’re really in is selling blocks of controlled votes and molded public opinion in return for political favors and protection.”…

The Revs Al and Jessie have been in this business for decades. During Al’s last run for POTUS, he broke so many laws it was ridiculous, he took public money and did not make any distinction between campaign funds and personal funds and left a string of unpaid bills behind.

Leftism is basically a pastiche of these deals. From unions to global warmmongers to afraid-of-the-religious-right to non-global worming eco-wackos (the evil corporations are killing all the darter seals, afraid of Big Oil, etc.) and more (c’mon, you can play along too!).

So the leaders of the various cults all identify an Other (who is usually a rich, white, man of the Republican variety, Dem rich folks are all good and shit) and then let their disciples know that only the benevolent, loving, almost divine, Democratic Party is the only salvation.

These hard-core followers then influence lots of acquaintances. Belief is obvious and it’s persuasive.

What has the GOP done for the last 10 years? Let us know they’re not as bad as the Dems. They don’t stand for anything except power for the GOP. Romney’s only lasting stance was power for Romney, everything else was negotiable.

Now, the Democratic Party stands for power for the Democratic Party, but they hide behind all manner of beliefs and their followers run with it.

Say what you want about Bush (seriously, say it. I do), but he believed in something. He communicated that very well and he won two elections he probably should have lost.

So we are stuck in a time when most people don’t pay any attention whatsoever to politics except for the last few days, but they’re fed a steady diet of “Leftists good, Conservatives bad” in every media everywhere, from movies to tv to radio (non-talk radio, but we all know they’re evil), etc. Yes, talk radio is somewhat powerful, but that’s self-selection. Your average person doesn’t listen to Rush because he called that woman a slut (she probably is) and made fun of Michael J. Fox’ disability (he didn’t, he just had the bad manners to notice that Fox exaggerated his trembling for the commercial, which reminds me, why, after the last 4 years of benevolent Dem rule, why haven’t they cured Parkinson’s yet?)

I don’t really have a point, I just like to understand the mechanics of the destruction of the American Republic.

Well Ben, we hung on to it for 0ver 200 years and I have a feeling we’ll get it back. The current insanity can’t go on forever, I just wonder how ugly it’s going to be. I still think an asteroid is the best-case scenario.

*James P. Hogan is hit and miss, sort of like Orson Scott Card, Code of the Lifemaker and the Two Faces of Tomorrow are very good, most of the others are okay. His biggest drawback is how every book ends with skittle-shitting unicorns for everyone.

Oh, and since I notice it’s no longer in our cloud thing at the bottom, sloppy vagina.

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The idea of American exceptionalism is rapidly dying, and I think we can all be grateful for the passing of this inherently silly idea. Mitt Romney is the author of No Apology: The Case for American Greatness and he got beat; he also barely brought up the subject on the campaign trail. Americans apparently don’t need to hear about how great they are anymore. Which is welcome news.

Some people just don’t think history will repeat itself or that war is the normal condition for mankind.

The Pax Americana has been pretty good for a long time, Europe’s had a few generations without a major war,Yugoslavia was a about like a bad weekend during the 30 years war and a bad early afternoon in WWI.
Normally, they have a major war whenever each country has had enough kids to replace the dead soldiers from the last war.

“Normally, they have a major war whenever each country has had enough kids to replace the dead soldiers from the last war.”

Which, as Mark Steyn has pointed out, they’re not doing any more. I’m all for families not having ten kids or something like that just because Mum and Dad are hot for each other and can’t keep their hands to themselves – on that score, bring on the pill etc. – but when you only have one, and that one is still living at home into their twenties, thirties or even longer, unmarried and childless themselves (or with only one child, borne late…), and that pattern is repeated across multiple social classes, that’s a recipe for a demographic disaster worse than either of the world wars ever was.